Sammie and Susie Littletail eBook

Well, all the Easter eggs were ready, and Sammie and
Susie, their papa and mamma, Uncle Wiggily Longears
and Nurse Jane-Fuzzy-Wuzzy, set out to hide them.
There were many colors. I think I have told you
about them, but I’ll just mention a few again.
There were red ones, blue ones, green ones, pink ones,
Alice blue ones, Johnnie red ones, Froggie green ones,
strawberry color, and then that new shade, skilligimink,
which is very fine indeed, and which turned Sammie
sky-blue-pink.

So the rabbits started off with their baskets of colored
eggs on their paws.

“Now, be careful, Sammie,” called his
mamma. “Don’t fall down and break
any of those eggs.”

“No, mamma,” answered Sammie, who was
still colored sky-blue-pink, for it hadn’t all
worn off yet. “I’ll be very careful.”

“So will I, mamma,” called Susie.

So they walked on through the woods to visit Newark
and all the places around where children want Easter
eggs. Of course, if you had gone out in the woods
on top of Orange Mountain you could not have seen those
rabbits, because they were invisible. That is,
you couldn’t see them, because Mrs. Cluck-Cluck,
the fairy hen, had given them all cloaks spun out
of cobwebs, just like the Emperor of China once had,
and this made it so no one could see them. For
it would never do, you know, to have the rabbits spied
upon when they were hiding the eggs. It wouldn’t
be fair, any more than it would be right to peek when
you’re “it” in playing blind man’s
buff.

Well, pretty soon, after a while, as they all walked
through the woods, Sammie kept going slower and slower
and slower, because his basket was quite heavy, until
he was a long way in back of his papa, his mamma and
Susie. But he didn’t mind that, for he knew
he had plenty of time, when all at once what should
come running out of the bushes but a great big dog.
At first Sammie was frightened, but then when he looked
again he knew the dog was not a rabbit-dog. No,
what is worse, he was an egg-dog. Now an egg-dog
is a dog that eats eggs, and they are one of the very
worst kinds of dogs there are. So the dog saw
Sammie and knew what the little rabbit boy had in
his basket. But he asked him, making believe he
didn’t know: “What have you in that
basket, my little chap?” You see, he called
him “little chap” so as to pretend he was
a friendly egg-dog.

“There are Easter eggs in the basket,”
said Sammie politely.

“And what, pray, are Easter eggs, if I may be
so bold as to ask?” inquired the dog, licking
his teeth with his long red tongue, and blinking his
eyes, as if he didn’t care.

“Easter eggs,” replied Sammie, “are
eggs for children for Easter, and they are very prettily
colored.”

“Oh, ho!” exclaimed the dog, just like
that, and he sniffed the air. “Please excuse
me. But would you kindly be so good as to let
me see those eggs? I never saw any colored ones.”

“Well,” answered Sammie, “I am in
a hurry, but you may have one peep.”